Buying a New Laptop

Fri Apr 22 10:45:59 CDT 2011

Shit.  None of this is easy.  The ASUS looks like almost the same machine
for $250 less.
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0355914
http://www.system76.com/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=113

Although the System76 has the matte finish and Li-Polymer battery.  The
ASUS, at that price has a 750GB drive (another $79 on the System76).
However, the ASUS has Windows on it.  A definite negative.  :-)

Sheesh.  I hope this discussion is helping others consider future purchases.

Peace,
Jim

On Fri, Apr 22, 2011 at 10:21 AM, Jim Herrmann <kclug at itdepends.com> wrote:

> So, you think if I buy the $1300 laptop from them, it'll be a good reliable
> machine, and I will have supported a Linux distributor with my purchase?
> That's the way I'm leaning now.  It looks like a bad ass machine.  It's got
> 4 memory slots, as opposed to most machines 2 slots.  It's got Nvidia with
> 1.5GB VRAM.  I think I'll upgrade to the 500GB hybrid drive with the 4GB SSD
> on board.  That sounds sweet.  I also like the fact that the display is a
> matte finish.  One of the options is to have another hard drive in place of
> the DVD drive.  That sounds like Ultra Bay technology, which would be
> IBM/Lenovo.
>
> From my cart (what do you think?):
>
> [image: Gazelle Professional]<http://www.system76.com/product_info.php?products_id=113%7B1%7D827%7B56%7D941%7B55%7D811%7B60%7D932%7B3%7D935%7B4%7D839%7B64%7D978%7B6%7D757%7B9%7D35%7B10%7D38%7B54%7D426%7B11%7D40%7B12%7D42%7B62%7D716>
> *Gazelle Professional*<http://www.system76.com/product_info.php?products_id=113%7B1%7D827%7B56%7D941%7B55%7D811%7B60%7D932%7B3%7D935%7B4%7D839%7B64%7D978%7B6%7D757%7B9%7D35%7B10%7D38%7B54%7D426%7B11%7D40%7B12%7D42%7B62%7D716>
> * - Operating System Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) 64-bit*
> * - Display Resolution 15.6" Full HD LED Display with Matte Finished
> Surface (1920 x 1080)*
> * - Graphics Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M Graphics with 1.5GB GDDR5 Video
> Memory*
> * - Processor 2nd Generation Intel Core i7-2630QM Processor ( 6MB L3
> Cache, 2.00GHz )*
> * - Memory 4 GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 2 X 2GB*
> * - Hard Drive 500GB 7200rpm SATA Hybrid Hard Drive with 4GB SSD*
> * - Optical Drive Bay 8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive*
> * - Wireless Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN
> Module*
> * - Extra Battery no extra battery*
> * - Extra AC Adapter no extra AC adapter*
> * - Car AC Adapter no car AC adapter*
> * - Laptop Bag no bag*
> * - Hardware Warranty 1 Yr. Ltd. Warranty and 1 Yr. Technical Support*
> * - Recycle Your Old Computer no, thank you
>
>
> *
>
> On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 6:32 PM, Joe Holloway <jholloway7 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 4:48 PM, Jim Herrmann <kclug at itdepends.com>
>> wrote:
>> > The more I look at it and compare, this System 76 machine actually looks
>> > pretty good.  And it comes with Ubuntu 10.10.
>> >
>> http://www.system76.com/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=113&osCsid=j80qvmcncigmf60sf0b2ffv9q0
>> >
>> > Thoughts?  Anyone had a System76 experience?
>> >
>>
>> I bought one of their higher-end laptops about 4 years ago and have
>> had a really good experience with it.  It's running Ubuntu 10.10 like
>> a champ and still as snappy as day one which I think was 6.10.  I
>> haven't needed any support on it, so I can't speak to that from my
>> personal use perspective.  That said...
>>
>> Late 2009, near the holiday season, the company I work for was in a
>> pinch because we had just landed some significant new business and
>> needed to quickly procure some laptops and workstations for new
>> employees.  Because of the holidays, Dell couldn't fulfill our order
>> in time, but System76 could. We were wanting to experiment with a new
>> vendor anyway and also eager to deploy desktop GNU/Linux for these new
>> positions which were mainly using web-based logistics software.
>>
>> It turned out to be a pretty poor experience overall.  We bought 10 or
>> so of their laptops (which were lower end based on availability) and
>> 15 or so small form factor workstations.   I don' t know exactly how
>> many are still in use, but it's not very many, if any.  None of the
>> laptops we deployed at our HQ are still operational.  There were hard
>> disk failures, display adapter failures, keyboard failures, you name
>> it.   The failure rate of these devices within their warranty period
>> was much higher than any other vendor we'd used prior to that.   After
>> the first couple of RMAs they essentially gave up and started
>> inventing reasons why the failures were our fault so they wouldn't
>> have to honor the warranty on them.
>>
>> My intent isn't to bash them or distribute FUD, but just to give an
>> idea that their niche likely isn't as a business supplier.  It could
>> be that they were overly eager to win our business and got in over
>> their heads... Or that our expectations were too high...  Or that
>> because of the timing of the order, we got some hobbled together lower
>> end hardware.
>>
>> With all that said, if you go with System76, my recommendation would
>> be to stick to the higher end of the spectrum.  Even given our bad
>> experience at work, I'd likely consider them on my next laptop
>> purchase.
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>
>
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